GDC 08: WipEout Pulse dev talks about designing game sequels

Are you enjoying the high-octane fun of futuristic racer WipEout Pulse? Did you like what the development team did for this installment of the popular WipEout franchise? During the GDC, game designer Clark Davies talked about how each game type should be approached when making a sequel. He also talked about how his team used this understanding to develop WipEout Pulse. Full details can be found after the jump.

One good game deserves a better sequel – that’s something every fan wishes were true for the electronic entertainment industry. Unfortunately, a lot of sequels end up falling short of expectations, spoiling good memories of a beloved original.

The developers over at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe are well aware of that, and with the development of PlayStation Portable racer WipEout Pulse, they tried to avoid the pitfalls of making bad sequels.

To explain this, game designer Clark Davies classified sequels into three: First are the “99 Percent” sequels which remain almost the same as the series goes on (like Guitar Hero), Sea Changers which reinvent a franchise’s concepts (like Final Fantasy XII), and Evolvers which build on all the good parts and add more features with each installment (like Halo and Grand Theft Auto).

Davies said that their team thought of the WipEout series as an Evolver type of franchise. The core concept of futuristic hovercraft running at insane speeds with weapons at a player’s disposal never gets old, so they decided not to fix what isn’t broken. For the WipEout Pulse project, they thought they’d add killer extras to an already-explosive formula.

Taking advantage of the PSP’s advanced hardware was essential for SCEE‘s efforts. The addition of non-central, but sweet features like custom MP3 soundtracks and JPEG use was well-appreciated by series and new fans alike.

In the end, the spirit of WipEout remained intact, but it got a hefty amount of additions and an updated look just the same. It may not have been the most ground-breaking sequel ever, but it didn’t need to and it kept a lot of people satisfied just the same.

Via 1up